09:10 - August 22, 2026 - Reigning US Open champ in pole position
Here's the latest state of play at this week's two events, together with prices to back on the Betfair Exchange at 8:50.
Nexo Championship
Matthew Southgate -4 9.417/2
Matthew Jordan -3 7.413/2
Shaun Norris -3 12.523/2
Marcus Kinhult -3 14.013/1
Scott Jamieson -3 19.537/2
Jacob Skov Olesen -2 8.27/1
Keita Nakajima -2 11.010/1
Matteo Manassero -2 20.019/1
Eliot Baker (a) -2 46.045/1
Quim Vidal -2 50.049/1
Benjamin Follett-Smith -2 90.089/1
-1 and 28.027/1 bar
BMW Championship
Wyndham Clark -12 3.211/5
Gary Woodland -11 7.613/2
JJ Spaun -10 10.09/1
Chris Gotterup -9 11.010/1
Sungjae Im -9 18.535/2
Patrick Cantlay -8 18.535/2
Michael Thorbjornsen -8 24.023/1
Rory McIlroy -7 18.535/2
-7 and 40.039/1 bar
The third round of the Nexo Championship is already underway, and the early starters are going to get the worst of the weather according to the forecast.
Early predictions suggested a blustery first three days before a more benign final day on Sunday, but the latest forecasts suggest the wind will start to drop this afternoon and that will favour the leaders.
The only three players trading at less than 10/111.00 in what is a wide-open market are the English pair, Matthew Southgate, who leads by a stroke, and Matthew Jordan, along with the promising 27-year-old Dane, Jacob Skov Olesen, and all three are in search of their first victories on the DP World Tour.
Between them, the two Matthews have played getting on for 500 events without lifting a trophy and although a talent likely to win sooner or later, Olesen is playing in his 55th DP World Tour event and he too is yet to win.
There is a wealth of talent sitting five strokes and further back but given the forecast, the one I like is Japan's Keita Nakajima, who trails by two.
Nakajima demonstrated his love of links golf when he finished third at the Scottish Open in July and given that he ranks second for Strokes Gained: Tee-to Green and first for Greens In Regulation at halfway, he looks like he's going to be there or thereabouts tomorrow afternoon and I was happy to back him at 11.521/2.
Back Keita Nakajima
Over at the BMW Championship, which is being staged at Bellerive Country Club, a long par 70 that hosted the US Open back in 1965, three US Open winners fill the first three places at halfway and it's hard to look past the leader, Wyndham Clark, who won the US Open for a second time as recently as June this year.
Clark's tee-to-green game has been exceptional over the first two days and ranking only 14th for Putting Average and 16th for Strokes Gained: Putting, there's scope for enough of an improvement on the greens to make him very hard to beat.
Odds in excess of 2/13.00 on the Betfair Exchange are tempting for the frontrunning Clark, who was also tied for the lead after round one, but after back-to-back 64s, he's likely to need to make all the running if he's going to lift another trophy and that's never easy.
He's the only man in the field that's bogey-free after two rounds and he won at Shinnecock wire-to-wire two months ago, so we have a very recent example of him leading all the way, but frontrunning is really tough and the one I like at a much bigger price is the prolific 27-year-old, Chris Gotterup, who's already won three times this year.
Back Chris Gotterup
Ranking fifth and 21st in the FedEx Cup standings before the off, Clark and JJ Spaun (currently third) are going to make it into the field at East Lake next week for the Tour Championship but the only other player inside the top seven places and within four of the halfway lead, that doesn't have the distraction of trying to qualify for next week, is Gotterup, who ranks seventh.
Only the top 30 in the standings make it to East Lake so the likes of Woodland (31st), Sungjae Im (40th), Michael Thorbjornsen (41st) and Patrick Cantlay (43rd), will have one eye on qualification all weekend and that could be enough to distract them.